good morning, i'm chris jansing. what's going on with the economy? there are mixed signals. right now a congressional committee is talking to ben bernanke about it. the dow is up again today after it jumped 286 points yesterday. making that the biggest day of the year and putting the dow back in the black for 2012. five days after that disappointing jobs report. it all comes as politico reports there are a dozen senators in secret talks about how to avoid going off the fiscal cliff. a group of bipartisan senators trying to make a deal

on cuts, taxes, debt, entitle manies to ward off economic catastrophe. let me bring in e.j.dionne, and susan, good morning. >> good morning. e.j., you write about the great divide in your book. here's what thomas coburn said on "morning joe" this morning. >> nobody wants to do the hard work of doing those things. they would rather have the political argument about what the status quo is. to me, it's pretty disgusting. >> we keep hearing about a gang of six. right now this report of secret meetings among about a dozen senators that are going to try to work together to get something done. is it possible in this political climate? could this be the real thing? >> i think it may be possible after the election because we have something on the order of $7 trillion of tax increases and cuts facing us if congress does absolutely nothing. that's a pretty big incentive to get a deal done.

i think the bloc ak all along h been republicans don't want to accept any tax increases. you had the brief opening for a small tax increase in that deal that fell through between president obama and john boehner. i think if the president said, yes, we can accept tax increases, we have the possibility of a deal. i don't see a deal if people on that side, the quefb ty side, say no way, then we're just facing deficits forever. >> do you see anything before the election? for example, january 1st is a deadline to reverse those harsh cuts automatically triggered? is all of this going to be something that gets done after election day? >> well, i think people on both sides think this is really going to be the business of a lame duck session of congress. one thing that will affect the final deal is who wins in november, both the presidency and some of these key congressional races and control of the house and senate. so, i don't think anything

happens before the election but ive i think all this groundwork needs to be laid. and members of the congress are getting together and it's discouraging they have to do it in secret because both sides won't accept the idea, especially mable republicans won't accept the idea there are compromises that have to be made. >> because everything is looked at in the lens of the election. yes, e.j.? >> i very much agree with susan's point on the election. a lot is going to turn on who wins the election. if president obama wins, he's in a very strong negotiating position this time around because if the republicans don't make a deal, then all clinton tax rates come back and tax increases happen. i would like to see the candidates discuss this in the election. and i bet we don't hear them discussing it very much because i'm not sure either has a big interest in doing so. >> just as what we get done about the economy will depend on who gets elected. who gets elected depends on how things are going to go in the

economy. i want to give you tom brokaw's analysis this morning on the "today" show how about plays into the debate. >> we're in recovery april and may and suddenly turns sour when you get to june. it's the unspoken part of the republican campaign now when that number came out last friday. bad news for the country. they thought it was good news for them. first of all, it diverted attention from romney back to obama not getting the job done. >> do we micro-analyze this too much? this guy is falling. the sky is falling. now a couple days in a row of a strong stock market. maybe things are looking better for the obama campaign. is it too much micro, and not enough big picture? >> i could have said that about the march and april jobs report, which were bad but not so bad but a third one bad, 69,000 jobs

created, and when people are making up their mind about the economy, what do i think about it, what direction are we going as a country, i don't think we're overanalyzing that. this is a moment when it looks like on the jobless numbers we're seeing the same thing happen. we saw the last two springs when things were getting better and suddenly they weren't. the idea we could be into a morrow bust recovery that felt more like a recovery really took a hit with those jobs numbers we saw last week. >> i want to show you what's going on on capitol hill, which is this hearing with ben bernanke and everybody's waiting with baited breath to hear what he'll have to say. he had to go in, so just before this program started we talked to senator bernie sanders, a member of the joint economic committee. here's that interview. >> senator bernie sanders, good morning. >> good morning. what's your number one question for the fed chairman? >> my number one question is, will he support me in trying to end the conflicts of interests

which presently exist at the fed? right now the ceo of the largest financial institution of jamie jpmorgan chase sits as a member of the new york fed. and right now what you have is bankers sitting on all of the regional feds. chris, this to me smacks of enormous conflict of interest. it's something that has got to end. we need a fed that starts representing ordinary people, the middle class, main street, not wall street. we have to get the bankers off the fed. i'll be asking the chairman, mr. bernanke, whether he supports that legislation. >> the markets are watching this very closely as they always do when a fed chairman speaks. do you think he'll be hesitant to make news, given everything going on and so maybe hesitant to answer your questions? >> well, i hope he does. i hope he does. the other issue we have got to deal with, long term is that in my view, this economy does not

get stronger if we continue to have the incredible concentration of ownership on wall street that we currently do. most people don't know this, but the six largest financial institutions in america have assess thes, chris, equivalent to two-thirds of the gdp of the united states. of $9 trillion. if you told me teddy roosevelt were alive today, he would be say, we have to break these guys up. we need more competition in the financial marketplace. it's wrong that these six banks are producing half of the credit -- half of the mortgages in america and two-thirds of the credit credit cards -- >> those in america sitting out there, worried about the economy. you watched what happened to the stock market last friday. how does this help? >> it helps a great deal. because what it says is if you have competition in the financial industry rather than concentration of ownership, maybe, just maybe, we're going to see wall street start investing in the productive

economy, creating jobs, goods and services rather than continuing to maintain the world's largest gambling casino, which is what wall street has become. the american people want jobs. they do not want trillions and trillions of dollars being placed on risky bets, which have already done this country a disaster and can lead us down the road, in my view, to another wall street bailout. people want investment in small business. they want job creation. and that's what we've got to do. >> and people also want, as i'm sure you know, for congress to get busy, for congress to do something about the economy and we're reading this morning about the secret meetings that are going on with the gang of six and some other senators who are trying to lay the groundwork for a deal. is there, do you think realistically a chance for a grand bargain when it comes to tax cuts, entitlements? is something serious in the works? >> i hope is so. the american people are very clear. they believe it is absurd that

at the time addition at a time when the top 1% are doing phenomenally well, while the middle class is declining and when the top 1% are paying a lower effective tax rate than at any time in decades, the american people over whepgly, democrats, republicans, independents, we have to ask the independents to pay a fair share of deductions. we have to do with large hoop holes. we have to take a hard like at military spending because the united states now spends more than the rest of the world combined. if you're asking me, do i think when social security is not contributing one nickel to our deficit that we're going to cut social security? no, this senator will not support that. when you have 50 million people without any health insurance, do i think you cut medicare and medica medicaid? you don't. we have the most unequal distribution of wealth in the world. the wealthy have to help.

they cannot fall on the back of the working family. >> i appreciate you taking the time pip know it's a busy morning. susan and e.j., since he brought up the 1% in so much of the conversation campaign has been about the 1% and 99%. there's an article in "the wall street journal" about mitt romney's house he's renovating in la jolla, beach-front mansion called "the candidate next door" and some neighbors are complaining because it's causing a big stir there and the secret service is everywhere, so on and so forth. he's going to block their view. do people care about this stuff, e.j., or is it really just the people who already like barack obama are going to grumble about this? >> let me just go back just for one second to the bernie sanders interview because i thought it was helpful he did bring up this issue of concentrated economic power. that really is as american as apple pie, as he pointed out, goes back to teddy roosevelt and

woodrow wilson. and goes back to andrew jackson. i think those issues matter more to people than what mitt romney's neighbors feel. we'll see a lot of that kind of coverage because people don't know him that well. i think our issue, the personal issue more interesting is about how he chose not to serve in vietnam and the whole issue of his draft record. what's interesting there is in the '90s in massachusetts he said he didn't want to serve. in his last presidential campaign he said he longed to serve. i just would like to ask him, do you have two positions on your own life? this was a very odd juxtaposition. i think that matters more than the neighbors and the house. >> you wouldn't know by listening to joe scarborough, my good friend this morning on "morning joe," he was all fired up about this. let me play a little clip for you. >> mika, if you or anybody else out there can show me this type

of spread from four years -- from eight years ago on john kerry and his massive accumulations and on theresa heinz kerry, who has every right to live well, they have every right to live well, but so too do the romney. >> and willie geist pointed out an article that he was windsurfing in nantucket and how he's out of touch. does this stuff matter, do you think? >> i don't think the election -- i don't think voters care about vacation homes and that sort of thing. but the reason it could be damaging to mitt romney is if it reinforces this idea that he's a rich guy that doesn't care about you, doesn't know about the kind of life you live, economic pressures ordinary americans face. if that happens and then i think it's a political problem for him. but the fact is, if you're the republican nominee for president

and you buy a $12 million house and tear it down with -- with proposal to tear it down and tbld with a grander house, we're going to write about it. >> he was there the last couple of weekends and pruning the hedges and painting the fence. he doesn't, i guess, outsource it all. susan page, e.j. dionne, great to see you. scott walker's big recall election could earn him a position at the rnc chairman. walker is among, quote, the bright, shining stars of the gop. priebus was born in wisconsin. [ lane ] your anti-wrinkle cream is gone...

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fund-raising frend frenzy.

president obama just had the best month of his campaign, raking in more than $60 million in may, a 30% jump over april. he is expected to add 5 million more to his war chest after last night's star-studded lbgt fund-raiser and a money-making breakfast in l.a. happening a little later. let me bring in political editor domenica. >> good morning. >> 60 million bucks, what's behind those numbers. >> if you look at the numbers in april and march are about the same, aside from one thing, which is the big george clooney fund-raiser where that brought in $15 million, the biggest fund-raiser in presidential history. >> where is all this money going, domenico? >> well, we broke down the states where it's all being spent. there's just a ton of money, the lion's share going into ten states but three in particular, virginia, ohio and florida. six out of every $10 being

spent -- >> 60% going through those three state. you really want to own a tv or radio station there. >> i think that would be true. i'm not sure i'd want to watch or listen to one of them. >> exactly. just ask any viewer there. so, who have been the biggest spenders so far? have we broken that down? >> 40% of the money has been spent by the obama campaign. they spent about $42 million so far on all of these advertising -- on all of this advertising but because of the outside group, the romney campaign spending $7.5 million so far, but outside groups are outspending president obama about $50 million from outside conservative groups. half of that money coming from crossroads gps. >> do we have a sense as to how much is going into advertising and how much is the ground game? >> well, that's all advertising. that's all tv and radio. >> pure tv and radio? >> yep. >> because there's just a ton more that some others have looked at with all the

expenditures. probably topping -- could be close to a billion or so. so far we've seen $108 million just spent on tv and radio and we're only in june. >> unbelievable. nbc's domenico, thank you very much. nevada, by the way, is eighth on the list of states that have seen the most tv ads this year. in just a few hours, president obama is going to make his tenth visit to nevada as president at the university of nevada-las vegas. there he'll be renewing his push for congress to prevent student loans from doubling. let me bring in our old friend, john rolston, las vegas son, publisher and political tv host. good morning. >> good morning. >> so, the president could make the student loan push anywhere he wanted. why unlv? >> maybe then he could get a whole bunch of students in there holding placards at this official event. that's what this is all about. it's building momentum for the

campaign, among various groups, student loans is going to activate the young people that have not been as excited, right, this year as they were in 2008. this is a campaign rally disguised as an official event. >> meantime, we were talking with domenico about the money spent. obama has spent $6 million on tv ads in nevada. how hard is it in a state with, i think, the highest unemployment, right, 11.7%, is it? >> yeah, that's the unemployment rate. that's actually better than it was a few years ago when it was close to 15%. still, we may have the worst economy in the country. this was the boom or bust city i'm sitting in right now, las vegas. the bottom fell out of the housing market. we have the worst foreclosure crisis in the country. the president, you know, won this state by 12 points back in 2008, chris. now all the polls show it dead even. it's a very, very difficult sell. mitt romney has been running here since about 2006. he did well in the state.

in the primary, and the caucus in 2008, did well again here. he has a real organization here. this is a toss-up state. we're a cheap date compared to ohio or florida. there's only two real urban media markets here, so they can spend a lot of money here and get a lot of bang for their buck. that's what they're doing. >> yeah, $6 million buys a lot more in nevada than, say, florida. so that's -- i feel sorry for you trying to put on tv at night and get a little relaxation. >> true. >> tell me blt ads you're seeing. are they largely negative? ads trying to define the candidates and omni present? >> the obama campaign had until recently run mostly positive ads. i think that season is over. we're seeing tremendous outside money. crossroads gps has run a lot of ads, that's carl grove's group they started, they run a lot of

negative ads about the president. obama's super pac has run a few. the real money is outside groups. you mentioned the obama gu handsome as george clooney but has more money is sheldon addleson and he'll spend a lot of money through crossroads gps to help romney-m. there's a story ken vogel posted saying he may give another million to romney's super pac. so addleson will be a huge factor -- >> a million is nothing compared to what he gave to newt gingrich, so do you think that's just the start? >> yeah, he gave -- he and his family gave about $21.5 million, as you alluded to to newt gingrich's super pac. i think sheldon didn't like all that attention. he won't give as much to romney's super pac. remember, crossroads gps doesn't have to disclose donors as a c-4 and i think he would like to do more underground giving and i

think he'll do that and he'll have an impact in this state. >> jon ralston, great to see you. thank you. >> nice seeing you. have we seen the last of jeb bush on the national political stage? ♪ the one and only, cheerios sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering so, i'm walking down the street, sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering just you know walking, sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering and i found myself in the middle of this parade honoring america's troops. which is actually quite fitting because geico has been serving the military for over 75 years.

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this is so off course. nature can surprise you sometimes... next time, you drive. next time, signal your turn. ...that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you. to politics where jeb bush is insisting he wouldn't be the vice president. as for president, he thinks it might be too late. >> there's a window of opportunity in life for all sorts of reasons. this was probably my time. although, i don't know given -- given kind of what i believe and how i believe it, i'm not sure i would have been successful as a candidate either. >> baseball legend willie mays raising money with the president in california yesterday and saying, quote, i had no idea in my lifetime that we would have

an african-american guy in the white house. both candidates played politics about who should host the cmt awards, toby keith or kristin bail. >> do you have a decision? >> this is one of the toughest decisions i've had to make since i've been in office. but i think i've decided. i want them both. >> boy, i thought the presidential election was a tough race. but it's nothing compared to politics at the cmt music awards. i think i have the solution, though. i propose toby and kristin co-host the show. see, i just put two people back to work. you're welcome, america. >> and if you read only one thing this morning, with all the talk about mitt romney's california beach house today, the next question you must surely be asking is, what does $49 million buy in aspen these days? well, apparently, a ski ranch for hedge fund titan john

paulson. by the way, he paid much less than the asking price. it is an interesting read, to say the least. you can find it on our facebook page at facebook/january singco. e my way ♪ ♪ spread a little something to remember ♪ [ female announcer ] fresh milk and real cream makes philadelphia and the moment a little richer. tell me you have good insurance. yup, i've got... [ voice of dennis ] ...allstate. really? i was afraid you'd have some cut-rate policy. [ normal voice ] nope, i've got... [ voice of dennis ] the allstate value plan. it's their most affordable car insurance -- and you still get an allstate agent. i too have... [ voice of dennis ] allstate. [ normal voice ] same agent and everything. it's like we're connected. no we're not. yeah, we are. no...we're not. ♪ ask an allstate agent about the value plan. are you in good hands?

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more controversial statements this morning. surrogates of the presidential campaign going off message, disagreeing with policy or praising the other guy. in several recent cases they've had to walk back or to clarify. here was jeb bush this morning talking about president obama and hiring arne duncan as secretary of education. >> any time an elected official that appears in the world today that appears to dispuckal challenges a core constituency, not of their opponent, but their own political base, i think we should pause and give them credit. this is the place president obama has done this. >> and richard lui joins me. more with surrogates not sticking to the script. >> good morning to you. whose side are they on anyway?

candidates might ask themselves that when their very own supporters hit the mikes. just yesterday an ex-democratic aide hipted opposite of what the white house wants. >> we have to make sure that we don't take gasoline out of the tank at the end of this year. that's got to be the top priority. >> they will have to extend -- they will probably have to put everything off until early next year. >> only the president doesn't want to extend tax cuts for the wealthy. romney also though feeling the mruser when he wanted to celebrate clinching the nomination, the donald redirected. >> there are many people that don't agree with that birth certificate. they don't think it's authentic. >> he hit a reset button for the fall campaign. everything changes. it's almost like an e etch-a-sketch. >> florida's republican governor praised the economy as steadily growing while romney criticized obama's work on it.

democrat corey booker demanded both sides stop attacking private equity while saying bain is not a bad company. david axelrod said he loved booker but he was just wrong. while romney seemed to hat tip the trump by releasing his own birth certificate, here's bill clinton on the clean-up. >> i didn't have any idea when i was given an answer that i was wading into some controversy in the campaign. >> and larry summers later said, i fully support president obama's position on tax cuts. politico jim vandehei call surrogate gaffes the art of dope. the sin, the scorned and the contrition. if you missed the latest shows, don't worry, they'll be running through november. >> again and again and again. thank you so much. joining me, former democratic governor of pennsylvania, ed rendell. also author of "a nation of wusses" and chief political

columnist for politico, roger simon. roger, surrogates are supposed to help. are they hurting more? >> surrogates no longer seem to view themselves as surrogates. a surrogate, as the name implies, is supposed to be a substitute for the candidate. if a surrogate has a different view, a different plan, a different agenda, he or she just ought to be up front with the campaign and say, look, i'm not going on the air as your surrogate. i'm going on the air to express my own views. and that's what's happening this year. it's hard to believe also when you get to bill clinton, former two-term president, that he did not know the controversy he was going to create by disagreeing with president clinton's financial -- i'm sorry, president obama's financial plan for the end of this year. he knew what he was doing. he just wanted to do it anyway. >> governor, did he know what he was doing? you know, the same with donald trump. you know, they're guys who have

played the media before. >> no question. but i think roger makes a point. when i would be asked by the obama folks to go on tv when i was governor, now i don't work for them, i work for us, but i viewed my job not as a surrogate, per se, i viewed it as an advocate. there's a difference. as an advocate my job to persuade. persuade the undecided. per weighed the people who haven't made up their mind. i think as an advocate, you increase your credibility. your ability to do the job they want you to do by being reasonable. >> so, is that what was going on, governor? i have to bring up the point. again, you are an analyst for us here at msnbc. you caused a little bit of a stir when you said you think pennsylvania may be more in play than we thought it was. >> of course it's in play. by the way, it's helpful. i don't want our folks in pennsylvania to be sitting on their rear end thinking it's over. i want them to be juiced and i want them to feel a little bit of energy because we might lose.

but i was asked that as an analyst. let me go back to my point, chris, because i think it's an important one. ed gilmore was on and romney himself was asked to grade the president on eight or nine different things. they gave him qun at fan "f" on everything. for us to say that mitt romney was a failed businessman or failed governor or doesn't have qualifications to be president, that's incorrect. when president clinton said that, he's building up a little bit of credibility back. so, in october when i guarantee you he's going to be there big time for obama, people are going to say, well, you know, he's not a romney barber, so what he's telling us may actually make sense. >> you know, i wonder -- i wonder if he's making a good point, roger. if people are sitting back and you hear both sides hitting each other nonstop and somebody actually does some analysis and says like maybe a jeb bush does, well, arne duncan is a good man.

he's been a good education secretary. does it actually give that surrogate more credibility when he's going after the other guy? >> i take the governor's point about advocacy and being a surrogate. but examine what president clinton said. he was making the point that governor romney had a sterling career at bain capital. that is not exactly a point you can walk away from in october. either governor romney had a sterling career at bain, as president clinton says, or he helped many americans lose their jobs by sucking the blood out of their companies as the obama commercials say. it's really hard to make those two positions match up. >> let me try. let me try, roger. >> all right.

>> first of all, he did have a sterling career at bain capital but his job at bain capital was to create wealth. not to create jobs. that's what private equity does. number one. number two, in the fall, it's going to be all about who's got the best plans to get our economy moving again. i think bain capital will fade just like reverend wright faded -- >> don't you think it played a part. if he was making the argument that i'm a successful businessman and that makes me better prepared to be president than a community organizer which they often say on the republican side about the president, that it the problem was, he didn't have any real life experience -- >> but does he now. he's been president for four years. he's been wrestling with those questions. he has all the experience anybody could ask for. people are going to start listening to not what their background is, but what they say is the way out. i think that's why president obama will win because he's got a more feasible plan. the romney plan cut taxes on the rich and there will be growth, you know, because we've discussed it, chris.

that's not correct. for 60 years. the time -- we had the best job growth is when the marginal tax rate was 50%. >> governor rendell, good to see you. politico's roger simon, thank you so much. also making news this morning, very busy morning, secretary of state hillary clinton is condemning the latest reports of violence in syria. and said she's disgusted by the killing of thousands. activists claim pro government militias killed 78 people in hama, including women and children. syria says the claims are absolutely baseless. in afghanistan, defense secretary leon panetta take aim at pakistan, pressuring the country to take concrete steps to root out the terrorist network. he said american officials are, quote, reaching the limits of our patience. secretary panetta also joked with troops in kabul. >> we just took down another leader in al qaeda the other day.

the worst job you can get these days is to be a deputy leader in al qaeda. >> the up. of his trip, no laughing matter, he's getting an on the ground assessment of increasing vie violence by insurgents. a groom-to-be was in hot air balloon when it hit power lines. they're all recovering from burns. still, she said yes. colorado is bracing for more severe weather today. one day after hail, heavy rain, even tornadoes hit the denver area. what a mess. this twister caught on camera touching down not far from denver international airport. only minor damage reported. elvis lives. we'll tell you how one company is planning to resurrect the king. well, millions of people are changing their passwords today after yet another cyber security

breach. cnbc's mary thompson is here with what's moving your money. mary, these breaches involve the business social networking site linkedin and eharmony. >> you have your business contacts and romantic contacts, it could make for some very, very dangerous, i guess you could say, bribes in some way if you were one of the hackers who had this. both companies confirmed security breaches. linkedin sent an e-mail to customers to reset the passenger. eharmony said they reset the passwords already. >> there's a new king of the road when it comes to miles per gallon. honda's new electric. it gets how much? >> 118 miles per gallon. >> wow! >> can you imagine that? that tops -- that tops mileage ratings given by the epa by ford's -- excuse me, cards made by ford, nissan and mitsubishi. this vehicle goes on sale in the summer and we'll see if investors snap it up -- or

consumers. 118 miles per gallon. some people wouldn't have to fill up their gas tank for, let's say, two weeks. >> unbelievable. mary thompson, thank you so much. the national preservation is out with the list of most endangered sites in america. the bridges of joe semty valley. ellis island hospital complex. malcolm x's childhood home in boston. currently deteriorating. teddy roosevelt's ranch in north dakota is jeopardized by a proposed new road. and the principle ton battlefield. you know, the site of george washington's victory over the british. it could soon be a housing development. what happens when classroom teachers get the training... ...and support they need? schools flourish and students blossom. that's why programs like... ...the mickelson exxonmobil teachers academy...

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enjoying eating curry flavored foods? you may be boosting your immune system in the process. curry triples the level of a protein that plays a vital role in the immune system. researchers find it could help fight bacteria. moments ago fed chairman beb bernanke says it's too soon to say if the federal reserve will take action to help stimulate the economy. he is still exploring options. this is what he told lawmakers a few minutes ago about how current fiscal policy cannot continue. >> this dynamic is clearly unsustainable. at best, rapidly rising levels of debt will lead to reduced rates of capital formation, slower economic growth and increasing foreign indebtedness. at worst they'll provoke a fiscal crisis that could have severe consequences for the

economy. >> also on capitol hill right now, house minority leader nancy pelosi drawing a new line in the sand with the gop, calling on speaker boehner to cancel next week's recess. >> democrats have a simple request to our republican colleagues. don't run out the clock on the economy. >> joining me now, democratic congressman chris van holland, good to see you. >> good to see you. >> speaker boehner's spokesman returned the volley releasing this statement. representative pelosi's letter should be addressed to her democratic colleagues running the u.s. senate who are still blo blockading a host of bills passed by the house with bipartisan support. we happy to forward her note to them. congressman, is the problem with the senate? >> the senate's going to be here next week. they're planning to be in session. what leader pelosi is saying is the house should take in session. we shouldn't be going on a break. we shouldn't be taking a vacation until we get this important work done.

there are three things that have to be done. one is the transportation authorization bill. this is the funds to invest in our national infrastructure on transportation, expire at the end of this month if we can't get an agreement. now, the senate has a bipartisan agreement. in other words, republicans and democrats in the senate agreed to move forward. we've simply said to speaker boehner, let's vote on that bill. let's have a vote in the house. on july 1st if we don't act, student interest rates, interest rates on student loans will double from 3.4 to 6.8%. we need to stay here until we fix that problem so that we don't see students take that big hit. we also need to move forward on the president's jobs bill, which has been sitting in the house of representatives since last september. >> well, let me ask you specifically about the student loan increase because john boehner and eric cantor say the president should cancel his trip today to las vegas. instead, work with congress to

make sure that this student loan extension gets done. and they're saying that kind of in response to what leader pelosi had to say about congress not going into recess. is that a fair comparison? >> no, for this reason. the white house has been fully engaged. the president can work on these issues. in order to get the student loan issue resolved, congress has to vote, has to take action. the president can't sign a bill until the bill gets to the president's desk. the president has put forward lots of proposals on this issue. our republican colleagues have rejected them. our point is this, lets say here and keep working next week until we resolve it. there may be differences. obviously, there are. but the way to deal with them is not for the house of representatives to take a break and get out of town. let's stay here until we get it done. >> all of this has implications for the national campaign. let me ask you about the presidential election because i literally just got in my in box

a note from the romney campaign. necessity s they say in may they raised $78.6 million, almost $77 million right after the obama campaign had its best fund-raising ever, $60 million. just right there an $18 million disparity. is that worrisome for you? >> i'm not worried about the disparity. there's way too much money flowing into all of these races right now. the american people are going to be totally bombarded in these races. at the end of the day, it's just important to focus on what these different candidates stand for. what are their issues? when you look at what mitt romney is proposing, in items of his budget and policies, their policies that would benefit people like mitt romney and big hedge fund owners at the expense of everybody else. and we tried that for eight years. it was called the bush administration. it was a trickle down theory.

the idea was, you give these big tax breaks to the very, very wealthy and it will lift all the boats. a few yachts got lifted up but the boat ran aground. i don't think the american people want to go back to that. that's what mitt romney's proposing. >> congressman, great to have you on the problem, thanks. spoking of fighting over money, today's tweet of the day comes from stephen colbert. if nasa is trying to find new ways to fund our space program, why don't they just hold a bikini subtle wash? [ male announcer ] this was how my day began. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next?

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morning. the agenda next hour, congresswoman and dnc chair called wisconsin's recall election a dry run for november. her takeaway about the recall and fresh word progressives in michigan are ending their attempts to recall that state's governor. new questions today about mitt romney's military experiencethereof.

exercise explained in black and white. new research showing a huge difference along racial lines when it comes to young women and their genetic odds of being overweight. baby brady number two, the world's tallest man. the bump watch is on for baby brady number to. tom brady and his wife gisele bundchen are expecting their second child together. a source tells "us weekly" that she's three months along. they already have a 2-year-old son. elvis lives. not exactly. but the company that made the hologram of tupac for the music festival is doing the same for elvis. digital domain medias it's gotten the okay to create it but no word on when we'll see it. the world's tallest man has finally stopped growing. the 29-year-old grew 2 inchd

since entering the guinness book of world record, 8'3". a tumor in his brain produced hormones that made him grow. if you live in idaho you can buy five wives vodka. the state 25% mormon banned the sale of the alcohol. under the threat of a lawsuit, idaho changed course. it's actually distilled in utah. that wraps u7 this hour of "january sing a . companies have to invest in making things. infrastructure, construction, production. we need it now more than ever. chevron's putting more than $8 billion dollars back in the u.s. economy this year. in pipes, cement, steel, jobs, energy. we need to get the wheels turning. i'm proud of that. making real things... for real. ...that make a real difference. ♪

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[ male announcer ] they were born to climb... born to leap, born to stalk, and born to pounce. to understand why, we journeyed to africa, where their wild ancestor was born. there we discovered that cats, no matter where they are... are born to be cats. and shouldn't your cat be who he was born to be? discover your cat's true nature. purina one. morning, everybody, i'm thomas roberts. topping agenda today, the battle of the bundlers and following developing news, new fund-raising numbers from the campaign. team romney is outflanking that of team obama. rnc raising $78 million outdistancing $60 million r